We set the alarm for 4:17am to get ready to go to the airport for a 6am flight. We arrived at La Aurora a little after 5am and were greeted by a very slow moving line at the Avianca check-in counters. We felt a little better knowing that everyone around us was also trying to get to Flores, but it was still a little nerve wracking. The plus side of being so late in a way is not having to wait to check back in later as we did in El Calafate. Almost everyone had already passed through. We were issued seats in the first row, which perplexed us slightly.
We bypassed the long line for international travelers since we were getting on a domestic flight. The jetbridge had been pulled and we were expected just to know to go down the steps from the jetbridge as if we were first officers doing a walk around. We were some of the last to board the Avianca A320 in what was sort of a business class, but also not. The middle seat had been blocked off as they do for short haul flights within Europe. Also, considering that the flight was about 30 minutes long and they didn’t do a service (not like they do a service long haul either), being awarded “business” seats on Avianca did not seem to be in any kind of violation of my airline agreements.
The Flores airport was a small affair. Bags were on the belt almost by the time we walked to it. We then met up with the Avis car rental rep who got us into a small Toyota hatchback and we were off. I had read that credit cards are not widespread and that Tikal only takes Quetzals (local currency). It is possible to buy tickets online, but I figured internet service would be spotty, so I hit up an ATM in Flores, as there are none near Tikal, which is in the middle of nowhere. It took us a little over an hour, passing through several small villages until we reached a checkpoint.
Considering that Tikal is a significant archaeological site and on the tourist circuit, it was kind of shocking how all interactions were exclusively in Spanish. It was good practice for me, but a challenge when the ticketing and entry process is unnecessarily complicated. 20km outside of the actual park entry, we bought our tickets, were handed a special paper where someone made note of the time, so when we reached the 20km point at the other end, someone else would jot down that time and assess if we were speeding.
It was maybe 9am when we arrived at the Jungle Lodge Hotel, where our room would not be ready for hours. We dumped our bags and tried to formulate a plan for the day. As our hotel is steps from the site, we thought it sensible to check it out. We headed into the Tikal complex by handing over our tickets, which are massive sheets of paper from a dot matrix printer, before receiving wrist bands. It was quite a lot of walking before we caught our first glimpse of a temple.
The jungle and trees are much more dense than I expected, but eventually we spied Templo I, better known as the Jaguar Temple from its back side. This is the main focal point of the Tikal site and what is perhaps the most recognizable. As a result, it was fairly crowded in the grassy area in front of the temple and we continued walking for another twenty or so minutes until we got to Templo IV at the far end. I had a very specific reason for wanting to scale this Templo. Star Wars aficionados, or as some might call them — nerds, might recognize the view from the top as the hidden rebel base from Episode IV, where the rebels launched their assault on the original Death Star. Interestingly enough, the Mayans later repurposed the base and made it a sort of ancient civilization site to be discovered centuries later.
When wandering away from the central area around the Jaguar temple, there actually weren’t that many people at all. At times, Nicole and I were all by ourselves. I think most do a day tour of Tikal, some coming all the way from Guatemala City and going back the same day. It seems like a lot, which is why I wanted to give us some extra time. Also, most people had guides which I find a bit limiting. What if they weren’t fans of Star Wars? We were able to walk around and see things our way. Ultimately, not that much is actually known about Tikal and what happened to the Mayans who lived there — just theories, so a guide would only bore us to sleep. We had after all been up since 4 this morning.
We worked our way back through an area called Mundo Perdido (or lost world). It received this name because it is architecturally different from the rest of the complex and researchers don’t fully know how it came to be (hence lost world). I scaled another templo in this area for the view from the top before we worked our way to the park exit. It had been quite chilly in the morning, but warmed up as the day went on. We half-napped in our car as we continued to wait for a room to be available. We got tortilla chips with guacamole and some fries from the hotel restaurant to pass as a lunch. Tikal is quite isolated, so we are a bit of a captive audience to whatever our hotel’s food offerings may be. Then I got a Guatemala national team soccer jersey from a vendor before we set out to get our tickets for the next day.
It is . . .a process. We drove the 20km back to the other checkpoint, showed our old tickets, specified we wanted ones for the next day, paid in cash, declined the offer for a guide, got another speed paper, and headed the 20km back to the hotel. Oy vey. We relaxed for a bit back at our room in a small outdoor area, but at least there was internet. Actually, there was also no electricity for most of the hotel at specific hours during the day. We were given a small sheet of paper indicating when it wouldn’t work. We decided to have an early dinner (presumably the kitchen does not have to worry about planned electrical outages) to set us up for an early bedtime. We had some pasta with tostones on the side. Tomorrow we will attempt to get into Tikal before the groups and day trippers arrive. But most importantly, we are hoping for a good night’s rest.
passports & pepto bismol 